Now You See Him, Now You Don't
by b00kw0rms
Summary: Tony Stark and Charlie Eppes went to colledge together. When Tony is kidnapped after inviting Charlie to New York, will the Avengers trust Charlie enough to let him save thier friend or will thier distrust make them lose their only hope of an unharmed Tony?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is the beginning of a cross-over between The Avengers and Numb3rs. This first chapter has a scene from the end of Iron Man, but the other characters will be from the Avengers. I haven't done too many chaptered fics, but hopefully you will enjoy this one!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or The Avengers**

Alan Eppes sat in his chair, watching the news with a grim look. It had become his evening ritual since both of his sons had starting doing FBI work. At five minutes 'till six, he turned on Channel 23-8 and prayed that neither of his boys would appear on the flickering screen.

When the front door slammed opened, he jumped. He grabbed for the remote, but didn't have time to switch to baseball; the screen brightened as a picture of a smirking man filled the screen. Charlie and Don entered the room laughing as their father frowned at the TV.

"He looks very familiar. I can't imagine why, a childhood friend maybe?" Alan mused. Both boys turned to glance at the screen. Charlie froze. "Tony? Why is he on the news?"

Don gave a sharp laugh of derision. "Anthony Stark. He's a billionaire playboy. Worthless, but he pulls stupid stunts all the time and gets on the news. I'm surprised you know him, Chuck, debating you never watch TV."

Ignoring his older brother, the mathematician stepped closer to the TV to listen. "Recently, Stark implemented his patented Arc Reactor, which just might provide his Tower with clean energy. We will have to watch and see if this publicity" the perky announcer put her hand to her ear. "We are interrupting our scheduled program to show live feed from the Stark Expo."

The screen went black for a moment before cutting to a room where the same smirking man stood in front of a podium. He only spoke four words before the news station returned to the shocked announcer. "I am Iron Man."

Alan and Don stared at each other in confusion. Charlie grabbed his cell phone and walked swiftly to his room. From the depths of his contacts list, he pulled up a single number and hit the call button.

"Hello, you've reached Tony Stark."

**AN: Well, this concludes the first chapter! It was mostly just an introduction and not really too much happened. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed it! Please review, even if it is only to tell me what I can improve on. That is how I will get better! Thank you so much!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey y'all! I am so sorry about how long I took to update this! I fear that I am very sporadic with updates and I apologize. Thanks so much for sticking with me! Thanks for the reviews! The majority of them were mentioning that I need to increase the length. This chapter is over 1,000 words, not including the A/N. Hopefully this is better! Thanks so much, I don't know what I need to fix unless you awesome reviewers tell me! Please read and enjoy!**

"_Hello, you've reached Tony Stark."_

"Tony, are you insane, I-" Charlie started. He stopped when it became apparent that it was just a voicemail. He could understand, he supposed, since after Tony's latest stunt a lot of people would be trying to reach him.

Charlie closed his eyes and put his hand on his forehead as he waited for the pre-recorded message to end. Typically Tony, it was full of innuendos and insults and yet polite enough to pass in most of society. "So if you fit the previous requirements or are a red head whose name rhymes with 'epper' go ahead and leave me a message. If I care enough I will get back to you. Probably. BEEEP."

Charlie resumed his pacing as he left his message. "Tony, it's Charlie. I don't know what the heck you are doing. Although I guess I know why you wanted my help a month ago. I…are you crazy? There are people out there who can deal with this stuff! If you are in trouble I can talk to Don, you don't have to do this for protection! I dunno. Just call me and we can figure this out. I want to know what theorem you used to find the measure of the repulsors to maintain flight, too."

A knock on his doorframe promoted him to end his call and turn. Don leaned against the doorframe. "I was going to tell you we just got a new case. But you know Stark? How? You guys don't seem like you have anything in common," he remarked.

"Other than being genii?" Charlie teased his brother as he grabbed his bag. After unplugging his laptop, the two brothers headed out the door.

_**LINEBREAK/LINEBROKEN**_

The questions continued all the way to the FBI office. Finally, the younger Eppes brother lost the calm façade he was so well known for. "Don, just because I roomed with Tony Stark in college doesn't mean I will ask him to buy anything for you!"

Unfortunately, he said it a little too loud. Almost every single head turned to stare at Charlie. Muttering under his breathe, he walked over to Megan. She opened her mouth, then closed it. He sighed. "Hey, um, Charlie. Can you get me an autograph?"

The professor slumped in his chair. Thankfully, David chose the right moment to walk in. He spread out papers all across the long desk. The team crowded together to peer at the documents. They were all covered in numbers, charts, and formulas. Everyone but Charlie looked confused at their newest assignment.

Don, now completely into FBI mode, looked askance at David. The tall African American rubbed the back of his neck, obviously uncomfortable. "Four people went up in some kind of a rocket and crash landed. Only two of them are actually licensed to pilot an aircraft of any sort. Their leader…he says that they got hit with some sort of radiation and now have, well, 'superpowers'," he finished in a rush.

Charlie had tuned them out and was scanning the pages. "Ah-ha!" He exclaimed. The rest of the table, who had been listening intently-albeit incredulously-to David jumped. Charlie looked up when he felt four pairs of eyes on him. "There's a mistake in his use of Wien's Approximation. From just a quick overview I believe that his math is correct but this is using long wavelengths. It fails to accurately fit the experimental data for long wavelengths emissions from objects," the math genius said brightly. Blank faces greeted his statement. He quickly restated, "There is a very high probability that if they entered the atmosphere at the correct time then they would be affected."

Megan looked unconvinced. "You're telling me that these people have superpowers. No way. It's probably a publicity stunt. I don't get even why the FBI is involved, anyways."

David handed her another paper, and Don debriefed the rest of the group of how one of the men, Benjamin Grimm, was said to have been on the plane when it crashed but was unaccounted for. He spoke of how the plane was a metal heap and how no one knew enough about radiation to be able to tell anything. "So that's why the case was handed to us. People upstairs have heard about Charlie's math miracles and now they need a logical explanation before this whole thing blows up on the press. Chuck, what'ca got for us? Right now I need any metaphor you can give me. Steal Megan's food if you need to."

The inside joke only worked partway. The agents all laughed but Charlie retained his somber look. "Don, I…I don't know too much. I mean, I can get through on principle and can do the basics but that's it."

His brother scoffed. He had heard so much about his brother being the "wonder child", Don was convinced that Charlie could solve it. Maybe he just needed some encouragement. "C'mon Charlie. You have multiple . You could multiply three digit numbers in your head at four! I'm sure you can do a little math on radiation. It's like microwaves, right?"

Once again, he shook his head at his brother. "Given a little time, I could probably figure this out, but it's a specialized field. I might need weeks to fully understand it!"

The agents all looked at him. They knew that it would take any of them YEARS to understand what Charlie could learn in weeks. David rolled his eyes.

Suddenly it hit Charlie. He knew exactly what to do to kill two birds with one stone (He hated birds anyways, they always were so annoying in the early mornings when he was trying to work). He backed away into a side room, saying, "I might not know a lot about Gamma Radiation but I know of someone whose an expert."

His older brother threw up his hands. It was like Chuck had a whole separate life that he knew nothing about!

The geeky math professor reentered the room with an uncharacteristic smirk.

"Guys, I'm heading to New York."

**A/N: Whew! It took me a while to write so much. I typically write a lot shorter but as I said in the beginning, I am working hard at improving the length! Hopefully, y'all can tell who the gamma radiation expert is and also the other group! PM me or leave a review if I am not being clear on anything. I don't think that I will mention the 'suspects' too much more, as this is primarily a Numb3rs and Avengers crossover. However, I am just writing as the mood strikes me and don't really have it planned out too much. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! If you have time, please review and let me know what to fix! Thanks!**


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